THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Nov 19 (IPS) - Sreelakshmi, an office executive in a major diagnostic laboratory in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital city of the southern Indian state of Kerala, ends her 11-hour working day to return home at night to a mountain of domestic chores.

ZA’ATARI REFUGEE CAMP, Jordan, Nov 19 (IPS) - No other camp for Syrians match the size of Za'atari. Equal rows of tents marked with the UNHCR logo spread to the horizon, dotted with lanterns and water tanks. Only a handful of people remain in sight, mostly on their way to or from the bathrooms.

GENEVA, Nov 18 (IPS) - Organisers of this year's World Toilet Day, which falls on Nov. 19, are using the slogan ‘I give a shit – do you?' to break the silence around the crucial issue of sanitation and remind the international community that 2.5 billion people around the world don't have access to clean and private toilets.

ANKARA, Nov 18 (IPS) - There was a sigh of relief in Ankara as Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), on Sunday put an end to the 68-day hunger strike of 682 Kurdish prisoners and nine members of the Turkish Parliament.

DHAKA, Nov 18 (IPS) - Bangladesh has begun to shed its image as one of the world's poorest nations and make a reputation for itself as a major exporter of cheap generic drugs to over 85 countries.

JERUSALEM, Nov 17 (IPS) - Four days into Israel's fierce assault on Hamas in Gaza, the ongoing operation looks on the surface a remake of the Gaza War of 2008-9 – with one unanswered distinction: whether it is aimed at completing what the previous onslaught didn't achieve – the removal of the Palestinian Islamic movement from power once and for all.

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 (IPS) - When the late Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), was engaged in a heavily one-sided battle against a robustly-armed Israel in 2000, he admitted the Palestinians were completely outgunned by the Israelis.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (IPS) - The world economy would bear substantial costs if the United States took steps to significantly escalate the conflict with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, according to the findings of a Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) special report released here Friday.

BERLIN, Nov 16 (IPS) - The austerity programmes being rolled out in virtually every member state of the European Union (EU) - particularly in Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy - have failed to reach their stated objective of consolidating public finances in order to solve sovereign debt crises.

DES MOINES, Iowa, USA, Nov 16 (IPS) - Give a woman a hand-out and you feed her for a day. But teach her to farm, and how to add value to her product, and you feed her and her family for a lifetime. And if she happens to be Nigerian smallholder farmer Susan Godwin, she in turn will also provide jobs for her community and become a national food hero.